The Los Angeles Lakers will start their regular season on October 22. If the Lakers don’t make a trade or ink a pending free agent before then, they’ll enter the year without making any impactful moves in the offseason.
That would allow the Lakers to take a look at their team and figure out what they need, which would put them in a better position to make a trade. They still have the assets to make a trade, with two first-round picks and more, so that’s something they could look into.
Searching for their “top” trade targets during the regular season, Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report pegged Kyle Kuzma as a potential solution to their shortcomings.
“Kuzma would come cheaper than either LaVine or Porter Jr. and, in the distant past, showed more defensive oomph than either of them,” Hughes wrote on October 7.
His shrinking deal dips all the way to $19.4 million in the final year, 2026-27, and the price in outgoing talent (aka matching salary) would presumably be lower for the Lakers as well. Kuzma is due to make $23.5 million this coming season, $19 million less than LaVine.
LeBron James Could Put Pressure on Lakers Front Office for Kuzma
With LeBron James turning 40 years of age on December 30, 2024, the Los Angeles Lakers likely won’t have much more time with the all-time great in their lineup.
After his performance in the Paris Olympics to help Team USA win a Gold Medal, the Lakers understand that James can still play at a high level and help a team win.
Because of that, the Lakers could look to add talent around him.
Christopher Kline of FanSided also listed Kuzma as a suitor for the Lakers in a proposed trade that would send him to Los Angeles. Kline added that James might be able to force the hand of the front office to make a move, and the Washington Wizards could oblige them.
“JJ Redick was the flashiest and the least qualified name on the head coaching market, so of course that is where the Lakers would go. Dalton Knecht was a nice pickup through the draft, but really on a rookie to reinvigorate your veteran rotation is often a fool’s errand. The Lakers need a lot more than Knecht Four can offer…
“At some point, LeBron is going to put enough pressure on the front office that a move is made,” Kline wrote on October 8. “One obvious trade partner would be the Washington Wizards, a rebuilding team with a ton of movable vets on affordable contracts.”
Kuzma’s Thought About Being Traded by Lakers
The Brooklyn Nets traded Kuzma to the Los Angeles Lakers on draft day during the 2017 NBA draft.
He spent four years with the Lakers, leading them to a championship in 2020.
However, he was eventually moved in a trade for Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards.
It was one many considered unexpected, per Kuzma, and claims he thinks the Lakers “gave up” on him.
“For sure, 100 percent-I think-it was tough because I think they kind of gave up on me,” Kuzma said in an interview with All-Star in September.
“And they gave up on that team, too, a little too early – probably panicked a little bit. But in the NBA, things happen fast. You never know what’s gonna happen next, and it’s always a revolving door. So we had a tough – tough little stretch, but it happens.”
Though he felt they didn’t give him and the team a fair chance, the Lakers could fix that and
trade for him again this season.
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